T here is just something about the cool and crisp days of fall that excites me. I search for the first tell-tale signs of the changing leaf colors. I think about the birds, squirrels, and other critters and wonder what they are doing now to prepare for the great changes to come. {Ruby will need a sweater soon...} I take in the comforting burnt aroma of the neighbors' first wood fires of the season. I crave soup and homemade bread and warm cookies. I wish one more time that I had kept a summer garden so that I could put away food for the winter.

I think about the birds, squirrels, and other critters and wonder what they are doing now to prepare for the great changes to come.And I make simmering apple potpourri.

Now, it's not a traditional potpourri that I make - I don't dry out my apples or add special oils or things of that sort. I guess you could, or should, call what I make plain old "Cooked Apples". After all, you can eat them if you like! But really, I enjoy simmering apples even if only to enjoy their delicious scent wafting throughout the house all day. Or at least until 3pm, because that is when the children come home and want to eat my "potpourri" for an afternoon snack!

There's really no wrong way to simmer apples. Just cut up two or three apples and then add what smells nice! You can start with cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg...,

Some vanilla extract...,

Mmmmmmm, and some butter!

Add enough water to cover the apples...{you'll need to add water every once in a while throughout the day as the liquids simmer down}

Oh, and don't forget the brown sugar! I almost did!

Give your edible "potpourri" a little stir...

And then let your fragrant apples come to a gentle boil before turning them to low to simmer for the rest of the day!

Here I've used a couple of full size flat sheets per rod for a full,Simple white cotton sheets... billowing look. So that I wouldn't have too much puddling at the bottom, I just folded over the extra length at the top and clipped them into place with curtain clip rings. I washed and dried my sheets first and hung them without ironing {I like the slightly wrinkled look but the wrinkles do eventually fall out on their own...}

I may live in a tumble down house, but that doesn't mean my windows have to look like I do!___________________________

Thanks again to everyone that participated yesterday's Make Your Monday! We had another wonderful turnout! I'll post highlights later in the week and as usual, it's going to be hard to choose just a few!

Now for that "important announcement" concerning future Make Your Mondays: I said last month that I would be continuing MYM events through October and then I would be taking a break from it until sometime after the beginning of the new year. I have decided instead to go ahead and take a break from hosting any Make Your Monday events beginning in October. I have a few important personal reasons why I feel this is necessary. I hope to use my extra time and energy to focus on finishing the kitchen and my studio this winter. I hope you understand. Please take advantage of all the other wonderful weekly link events held on other sites. If you would like to share links to other link parties that you enjoy, please feel free to do so in the comments below. I've had a lot of fun with this over the last couple of months and I hope you have, too! There is a lot of inspiring creativity out there and I'm honored that you've taken the time to share your projects here at Twice Remembered. Thank you!

I t's time for another Make Your Monday link event! Show us where your creativity has taken you lately by joining in! {see instructions below} But first, check out these great Make Your Monday projects that caught my eye from last week!

I hope you enjoyed these projects and others from last week! Thank you all for joining in! {Please be sure to come back on Tuesday for an important announcement regarding future Make Your Mondays.}

Now it's your turn!

To participate in Make Your Monday, just follow these 3 easy steps:

1) ~First, create a blog entry about something you made yourself. **Include in your blog entry a link back to this post so that others can discover this great list of Make Your Monday links and have an opportunity to contribute. To get this link, just click on the post title above and then copy the address that appears at the top of your browser.

2) ~Next, add your Blog name down below along with a short description of your project

3) ~Lastly, below your blog name/project description, add the permalink of the blog entry about your project {not your blog homepage}. Where's the permalink? Just click on the title of your Make Your Monday entry and then copy the address that appears in the address bar and paste it down below. It should look something like this:http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/2009/07/your_project.html.

If your link disappears, it may be because of one of two reasons:~You added the wrong link to MckLinky {please don't add the link to your blog homepage but instead add the link to your specific Make Your Monday post}~You didn't add the proper Make Your Monday link to the blog entry you listed in MckLinky {please don't add the link back to my homepage but instead add the link to this post}Don't worry if you come back and your blog isn't listed anymore. You can just make the needed adjustments and add your link again. You can grab the Make Your Monday button for your site, too, if you like.

That's it! We're looking forward to seeing what you've been up to! Have fun visiting and commenting on all the creative projects below!

{This list will be opened at 7 pm Pacific tonight, Sunday September 27th and will remain open until Tuesday September 29th, 12 am Pacific.}

When things go wrong as they sometimes will;When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;When the funds are low, and the debts are high;And you want to smile, but you have to sigh;When care is pressing you down a bit --Rest if you must, but don't you quit.Success is failure turned inside out;The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;And you can never tell how close you are;It may be near when it seems afar.So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit --It's when things go wrong that you mustn't quit.

~Unknown

Don't we all need this little reminder every once in a while for one reason or another? When have you needed to tell yourself that "you mustn't quit"?

Please be sure to come by Sunday night at 7 pm Pacific time to add your link to this week's Make Your Monday and to see some inspiring project highlights from last weeks event. Thanks to everyone that participated and I'm looking forward to seeing what you've done this week!

Y ou all left such lovely comments in my last entry about our new hardwood flooring. Thank you! It was a backbreaking job as you may well know, but we are very pleased with how it turned out. I'm glad to hear that some of you have the same flooring and have been happy with it! For those of you who are eager to rip out your old linoleum or carpet, I understand! It will happen, and even if it takes much longer than you prefer to get to that point, it will be well worth the wait! {You'll be kissing your new floors, too, I'm sure!}

I was disappointed to see just how grainy the photos were in my last entry as I looked at them in theFor now, the kitchen is my playground. morning light so I rephotographed them and replaced them. I spent some time, too, capturing some little kitchen vignettes. {I know it seems like the kitchen is really the only place I photograph vignettes, but that's because the rest of the house is pretty much a great big embarrassing "before" that needs a lot of work still.} For now, the kitchen is my playground as far as decorating fun goes, though the studio is getting there...

Last week I shared with you some photos of the kitchen floor "surgery" we had to perform recently in order to prepare for the laying of the hardwood, along with some additional history about our kitchen. In short, I've been waiting for this flooring for a looooooong time.I feel like the hardest parts of the kitchen remodel are behind us It has been a slow, labor intensive journey getting to this point with our kitchen. We've been working on it little by little for over three years now, but when you're on a budget, slow progress is better than none at all, right? We still have to tackle the trim work, install/paint beadboard, and work on a few other small projects I've been dreaming about for a while, but I feel like the hardest parts of the kitchen remodel are behind us. We've knocked out walls to install windows and french doors, installed a new plank ceiling and lighting, added trim to and then painted our standard honey oak cabinets, installed a new countertop, backsplash, and faucet, replaced the appliances, and finally over the course of the last two weekends, laid the hardwood flooring.

Just about all the accessories you see in the photos came from Goodwill, yard sales, or the flea market. A couple of things were purchased from Ebay. I think my favorite recent finds are the old mortar and pestle {it was $1}, the cake plate and dome {$5!}, the antique cookbook {$1}, and the Morton's salt tin {.50}.

I hope you enjoy these random shots of our "kitchen in progress". Can you picture it with white beadboard around the entire perimeter? Can you picture the dining area with a fireplace? {More on that in the future!} Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for this space!

First a "before":

And now a few million "afters":

I wasn't going to show you this side of the room since there are boxes of flooring stacked up, but I wanted to tell you that I'm making plans to put a fireplace on the wall that the map is on. The kids LOVE this giant, laminate map and they all want it in their room. One map, three kids sharing two rooms. That still leaves not enough map to go around. Hmmm...

And a before and after taken from the same angle. {Maybe there is potential for the rest of this house afterall?}: